Tennessee Vols predicted to land transfer player that should help fix an issue that hurt the team in the College Football Playoff
The Tennessee Vols appear to be on the verge of making a key transfer portal addition. On3's Pete Nakos predicted on Friday that the Volunteers will land Duke Blue Devils transfer running back Star Thomas. Thomas traveled to Knoxville this week to visit Tennessee. That visit reportedly went very well. Thomas, 6-foot/210 lbs from Homer, […]
The Tennessee Vols appear to be on the verge of making a key transfer portal addition.
On3's Pete Nakos predicted on Friday that the Volunteers will land Duke Blue Devils transfer running back Star Thomas.
Thomas traveled to Knoxville this week to visit Tennessee. That visit reportedly went very well.
Thomas, 6-foot/210 lbs from Homer, LA, played at New Mexico State in 2022 and 2023 before transferring to Duke for the 2024 season.
During his lone season at Duke, Thomas rushed for 871 yards and seven touchdowns. He also caught 20 passes for 153 yards and one touchdown.
Over his three year FBS career, Thomas has totaled 2,049 rushing yards, 16 rushing touchdowns, 504 receiving yards, and six receiving touchdowns.
Peyton Lewis and DeSean Bishop are expected to serve as the Vols' top two running backs in 2025. Landing Thomas would give Tennessee another starting caliber running back, which would allow Josh Heupel and his offensive staff to deploy a "three-headed monster" as they did in 2022 and 2023.
(Tennessee lost running backs Cam Seldon and Khalifa Keith to the transfer portal last month.)
This past season, the Vols leaned heavily on running back Dylan Sampson and he broke down near the end of the season as a result.
During Sampson's first two seasons at Tennessee he had 184 total touches. In 2024, Sampson had 278 touches.
Sampson's biggest workload in 2024 came in the month of November when he carried the ball 112 times.
By the time Tennessee faced Ohio State in the first round of the College Football Playoff, Sampson was too banged up to contribute, carrying the ball only twice against the Buckeyes
Heupel's offense at Tennessee is always going to rely heavily on the run. Outside of rare exceptions, the Vols will need to use a three running back rotation to ensure their running backs are healthy for a potential deep post-season run.
Landing Thomas would give the Vols a solid three running back rotation without having to rely heavily on a true freshman like Daune Morris (though I'd still expect to see Morris involved in the offense at times in 2025).
